Monday, July 24, 2017

Schoolcraft - Mon., July 24, 2017

Mon., July 24, 2017

In the Games and Sims course I am taking this summer at Marlboro, I have become "Tiffany Star" and experienced and learned Jokaydia Grid, Second Life, and now Minecraft.  Each world is so different from each other and from school.  This last program is "Minecraft" and an article we read from James Paul Gee, "Good Video Games and Good Learning" made me think about how we could create "Schoolcraft."  Taking the key principles that Gee mentions and make them REAL in our schools.   For example, one of the principles is "risk taking" and that good video games lower the consequences of failure.  In schools, we operate on the "fear of failure" as "sticks" for students to learn.  We must innovate our schools by starting with our classrooms and making "failure a GOOD thing."  We also have to "customize a game to fit with the learning and playing styles."  Personalized learning will support this, but it's still so new and "risky" for educators when we are held to high stakes testing scores.  What if our SBAC tests were like video games, and preparing for them was a "well-ordered problem" - what a difference it would make in mastery of concepts for students.   Building a house in Minecraft requires math skills - four planks divide into tools, etc., so math content can be applied in a game setting.  I believe we must do the reverse, and make our schools/classrooms more like a game setting, if we truly want to engage today's learner for LIFELONG learning.




1 comment:

  1. Well Cathy, Is a bit hard to read this post with the light writing....but, my eyes tried and survived. One of the problems of initially using games in the classroom is that teachers start by trying to fit a game to their curriculum, and making lessons from paper fit a game. This basically loses the focus of what games can teach us about the students, and how we can use what we learn to work them into the curriculum. The new Microsoft Minecraft is now so Common Core oriented that it has lost the "sandbox" effect of kids playing, but learning without really thinking about it. We know kids learn from playing....so why not incorporate that into the classroom along with some good gaming?

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